The Great Wall

Lin took us to the Great Wall today! Oh my is it GREAT! This is us at the bottom of it. Patricia stayed back knowing she's never be able to do it on crutches, so Eric and I decided to see how far we could go. Lin took us to a part of the wall that isn't a tourist part, mostly just locals. He said that there aren't as many steps up, but that makes the wall very steep. I would go about 10-15 steps and have to rest. The steps are not equal in height. Some are very short, others are quite high. I was lucky I have long legs, but man did we get a workout.

Every so often up the wall, there are guard stations. We made it up to the 3rd guard station, which in the picture is the one on the top right next to the two trees. There was probably one more station we could have gone too, but we were both quite tired and knew we still had to make it down. It took us 2 hours to get up and about 30 minutes to get back down. By the time we got to the bottom, my legs were shaking and felt like jello.

This is a picture of Eric and I (not a very attractive one of me...but I had just climbed the great wall!) at the point of the wall where we were done. The guard tower in the picture was the next one...we decided against it. :)

After the Great Wall, Lin took us to another local restaurant. We were all worried how Eric would do with the food, especially him. He had a couple of granola bars in the van before we got there just in case. The food was similar to yesterday, but not quite as good. The chicken today was like a tiny spicy and it was really good. There was also a pork that was good, but not a lot of it. It was the only thing Eric would eat, so he ate most of that and Patricia and I enjoyed the rest. I was just proud he tried some things. With both the chicken and the pork, he said it would be better wrapped in a tortilla. Hmmm, is he from Arizona? :)

After we ate, we got a tour of a jade factory that is attached to the restaurant. It was really cool to see how they carve the jade. Everything there was really overpriced, and we are hoping to find some better deals at the silk/pearl market tomorrow. At least there you can barter. Lin said all the jade there is guaranteed, so that made me feel a little better about buying from there.

Next we went to the Summer Palace. A 700 acre park with a huge lake in it that was built for the Emperor and his family to live at in the summer. It was beautiful. We even got to take a dragon boat from the end of the park back to the beginning, which was nice to cut out some walking!

Lin took us back to our hotel and I crashed! I went and soaked hot water in tub for an hour! Patricia and I have just hung out here tonight taking it easy. It's been a GREAT day!